(23 April, 1961) near Leningrad, grew up and lives in Kyiv. He is a Ukrainian novelist who writes in Russian and Ukrainian. He is the author of more than 20 novels and 10 books for children. His work is currently translated into 42 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. He has also written assorted articles for various publications worldwide including New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, La Liberation, Le Monde, Die Welt, Die Zeit.
From 2018 till 2022 he was acting President of PEN Ukraine, running international and national literary and socio-political projects. For his novels, for literary and human rights activities he was awarded Halldor Laxness Prize (Iceland, 2022), Legion d’Honeur (France 2015), Medici Prize for Best foreign Novel (France 2022), Freedom of Expression Award (Index on Censorship, London 2022), Readers’ Award (France, 2012), Hans and Sophie Scholl Prize (Germany, 2022), National Critic Circle Award (USA, 2023) and others. His books are full of black humour, they are mostly set in post-Soviet reality.